Robert “Dr. Bob” Polo – THE English voice of radio for many Czechs

A lot of Czechs might not recognise Robert Polo by appearance. But many
undoubtedly know the American’s rich and distinctive voice – and Dr.
Bob persona – thanks to his work as a prominent presenter over the years
on the radio
stations Metropolis,
Expres and Color Music Radio. Polo is also a leading voice
artist in the Czech Republic, as well as an in-demand compere of live
events. When we spoke, he told me he had already been a broadcaster for
some years prior to his arrival in Prague in 1994.

Robert Polo, photo: Ondřej Tomšů
“When I originally came here I was supposed to be here for a week. And I
think, like many people, you come and – as Kafka said – Mother Praha
has claws. And you just don’t leave.

“I’d heard of Metropolis and I decided I was going to work for them.

“I’d heard that they were auditioning for a new morning announcer
because the previous morning announcer, Buzz Leboe, who was kind of ‘the
voice of Prague’ at that point, wanted to step down.

“They were training a couple of kids. They were good. They were
ambitious, they were young, they had some talent.

“But I walked in and I said, Well look, I want to do the job. And they
said, No, we already have somebody.

“So every day at 4:30 – yeah, 4:30 – I would be out in front of the
broadcast bunker and would say, Is it my turn yet?

“And through my tenacity I got myself in the door – and within five
minutes of hearing me they sent everybody away.”

And Radio Metropolis was somehow connected with Voice of America, is
that
right?

“It originally started as I guess Club VOA, and they were able to
commercialise it.

“And, oh my, what a cast of characters. The Czech management I didn’t
really know that well but the boss’s name was Zdeněk Vlk.

“He smoked these crooked Ukrainian cigars and everything was, Zitra,
zitra [tomorrow]! Especially when it came to paying us [laughs].

“One day we were broadcasting, I think it was in March of 1996, and one
of the programme directors, Mike Belosov, came in and said, It’s done.

“I said, What do you mean, it’s done? And he said, Well, we haven’t
been on the air since 7 AM.

“So basically for two hours I had been broadcasting into a wall…”

Tell us more about the place – you mentioned that the studios were
in a
bunker.

“Through my tenacity I got myself in the door at Metropolis – and
within five minutes of hearing me they sent everybody away.”

“It was a former Czech telecommunications bunker, at Parukářka. The
entrance was on Jeseniova. And there was a blast door – an 18-inch thick
concrete door that you had to open.

“Of course there was a vrátnice [reception] there and the guy would
wave you in and you went around a corner.

“It was built as a nuclear fallout shelter and it had these different
angles to prevent blasts from coming up the hallway.

“About 100 metres into the hill you would make a left and that was our
column. We had two or three big office spaces – one of which I ended up
living in.

“The studio that we had was down at the end of the hall and it
couldn’t have been more military. Again, it was like being on a
submarine,
with big doors with handles you could close up and seal yourself in.”

And you lived in this underground space? Way underground, I’m
guessing.

“I had returned to the US to get a bunch of my possessions and come
back. And, as was pretty commonplace back in those days, my landlord found
somebody else to rent the flat for more money.

“So when I came back all my possessions were in the hallway. I had no
place to go, so the people from the radio station said, You can live here.

“I was living in this space and it was complete sensory deprivation.
When you turned off the lights at night it was black, complete darkness.

“So I had this pattern. When I shut the light off, I knew it was two
steps over and two steps to the middle of the room, where I had the
cushions from the couch laid out.

“One night, and it wasn’t because I was drinking or any substance
abuse of any type or anything like that, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“I jumped up... And to this day I get goosebumps when I talk about it.
It
was a very, very creepy experience.

“I packed my things the very next day and I left the bunker. Because
something was there. Maybe it was an old Celtic spirit or somebody who had
died building the bunker.

Was it a kind of underground warren? Could you walk for some distance
under the hill there?

“The gentleman who operated that section of the bunker decided after a
couple of bottles of rum one night that he was going to give us a tour.

“We actually ended up somewhere on Italská by Riegrovy sady. So if you
calculate that, it’s the better part of a kilometre, down through
Žižkov.

“Also on the back side [of the hill] there’s a rail hub underground.

“Let’s face it, if you go to Motol or any of the significant sized
hills in the city, they’re full of bunkers.”

You mentioned your landlord kicking you out because he found somebody
who
would pay more. Those were of course the Wild East days. I sometimes think
it was lucky that there wasn’t any social media in those days to record
what we were doing. What kind of a ‘90s did you have?

“Put it this way, if you were here in the ‘90s, you know what kind of
‘90s we had. If you weren’t here, well, you’re probably better off
for it.

“Do you remember, when you made a meeting with somebody, or you left a
note on a bulletin board, you had to be there?”

Of course, there was no way to communicate. Nobody had any
phones.

“Nothing, nothing. And the community was much closer knit because of
that, I believe.”

Getting back to your work, after Metropolis, you went to Radio
Expres, is
that right?

“I didn’t quite make it there. There was a large gap of
time [between the two broadcasting positions] – it was the better part
of six years.

“I needed to find a way to capitalise on what I did, which was music
formatting and DJ services.

“I started working in clubs as a DJ, but honestly, it’s the kind of
lifestyle that really takes a toll on you.

“So then I started doing music services for businesses. Because if you
remember, here in the ‘90s you would go into a lovely restaurant with
white tablecloths and they would be playing [radio stations] Evropa 2 or
Blaník.

“I was kind of on the forefront of that and made some spare change doing
that.

“Then in around 2001 I heard that Expres Radio had Big J and a guy by
the name of Philip Parun doing an English show.

“So [laughs] once again, with the same tenacity, I went up to them and
said, You know what, you really need to have me on the air.

“Roman [Ondráček] and Miloš [Pokorný], Težkej Pokondr [a music and
broadcasting duo], were running
the station at the time and they heard me.

“We got along quite well, we kind of hit it off, and I started a show
there called Expres Evenings in English, which ran for four years.

“Then I was asked to step into the programme directship, when MAFRA
bought
the company.

“It was quite an interesting experience, because I hadn’t worked
inside a large Czech organisation. And I probably never will again
[laughs], thanks to MAFRA.

“But the people were very interesting and I had, at that point, the only
English language morning show in, I guess, mainland Europe.”

You must have been quite famous in those days – were people
recognising
your voice in the shop, or whatever?

“Actually, I find today that people recognise my voice more.

“Because a lot my listeners today have children the same age as my kids
so I’m at more of these events where you’re with your children, and
they go, Hey, you’re Dr. Bob – I remember you.

“But thanks to having that platform it certainly helped me with my voice
work.”

Now you’re also doing something called Color Music Radio – what
is
that?

“Color Music Radio is an interesting project, because we’re kind
of the last of the real independent radios.

“We’re working on the paradigm of people sharing the passion for great
music, whether it’s Celtic music or African music or, in the case of
what
I do, it’s an amalgamation of rock'n'roll, punk, soul and RnB
from the 1950s through
to today – maybe not so much from today; I stick with the music I grew
up
with.

“And we’re an independent band. Right now there is nothing else like
it in the Czech Republic.”

"But we also have terrestrial signals, all be they not very strong,
in
Prague, Brno, Opava, Český Krumlov, Znojmo and Karlovy Vary.”

Do people take you as the kind of 'classic American
DJ'-type guy,
because of
your name, because of your voice?

“I think it’s more because of the voice than the name.

“I have to say, Pražané [Praguers] can be very stuck up. People here
are very nice to me for what I do, but when I go to Brno, they greet me
like I’m Elvis.

“People come up to me and ask for my autograph and photo opportunities.

“I don’t know if it’s just that they have a more soulful experience
from what I do, but I really enjoy going down there now.

“In the smaller markets it’s very interesting, because they really
take you as their local guy. Because for example in Opava there is no
other
locally based radio station there.

“They take Color Music Radio as theirs so when I visit there, again,
I’m kind of like their big star.”

You’re also one of this country’s best-known voiceover artists.
What
kind of stuff do you do?

“I think the better question is, What kind of stuff won’t I do? There
are very few products that I won’t represent. I can’t think of any off
the top of my head right now, especially if the price is right.

“But – we were talking about this off-air – I’ve stopped doing
audio guides, because for me to do 10,000 words, which is double what an
average person speaks in a day, it takes a toll on my vocal cords.

“You can hear it now… When my vocal cords start to go south, I just
stop talking. I shut things down until they’re better again.”

I was thinking, of all professions, yours is one where you simply
can’t work if you’re ill or have a head cold. A politician can appear
in public and a radio news journalist can do their reporting with a head
cold,
but you just can’t work, I presume?

“Could you please call my wife and explain that to her? Because she
really thinks I’m a hypochondriac.

“And bless her soul because perhaps I have been a little bit over the
years, but the second that my
vocal cords start to go the Vincentka [mineral water] comes out, the tea,
the honey, the slivovice.

“I wrap up my neck and it’s like, Leave me alone.

“But there are other clients that like the raspy sound. So it
depends.”

What makes a great voice, for you?

“Believability. Sincerity. If people believe what it is you say, and you
have to have a certain degree of sincerity in your voice in order to do
that, then you’ve accomplished something if you can communicate that.”

Do you mainly work for Czech clients or for foreign clients?

“I’m very fortunate that I have a very decent client base in the Czech
Republic.

“I travel, not as extensively as I would like, to Poland, Hungary,
Slovakia and Austria.

“Germany is a very tough market to break into because they have a large
amount of voice artists there.

“You get a lot of voices online now, people who will do stuff for
five dollars.

“Well, I have my fee and if I can’t get that I’m not interested in
doing it.

“But in most cases people want you in the studio. They want the meat
puppet there so they can say, Do it this way, do it that way.

“I have not had as much success as some other people that we know in
doing this stuff across the internet.”

Over the years I have done a little bit of this kind of work and
I’ve sometimes found myself in strange situations. For instance, in
places
somebody is calling a studio but it’s not actually a studio.

“Bathrooms with egg cartons! I’ve seen the scope of them.

“But over the years post-production facilities here have not only
increased in number, they have certainly in quality as well.”

Again in my limited experience of dubbing work, sometimes the
texts that you receive, it’s just not English. What do you do in that
case?